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[–] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

This is basically how a rail cannon coil gun works, just with electromagnets that can reverse their polarity.

It's a powerful way to accelerate anything — I think it's most famously used in those types of metal roller coasters that start you at a flat-with-the-ground angle, and then just fuckin launch you up a ramp to 45° with electromagnets. The issue is that you need a fuckton of energy to do that.

What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

    Surely that dude has to eat a lot in order to produce so much energy, no? Or is it just all stored somewhere in his body?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    That's not how a railgun works, that's how a coilgun works. Railguns create a loop of electric current that flows into one "wire" (the rail), through the projectile into the other wire, and back down to the starting point again, this configuration creates a force that pushes the projectile down the rails

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